Most of us use one form of consumer electronics item or the other. And almost all of these come with “power bricks”. Essentially they convert our AC main voltage of about 220v into DC power for electronic items. They are bulky and generate a lot of heat. When you try to connect them onto power strips, they often have loose connection issues.

Click on image to enlarge

But perhaps the biggest issue with them is that they are so huge that putting two power bricks next to each other on a power strip is impossible.

The goal of this post is to tell you how to work around this problem. In the picture above, you can see that the last power brick is connected using a wire to the power strip. This is actually the solution!

If your power brick wont fit into the socket, you can easily do so as shown in the picture. All you need is to buy a small piece of wire (a pair), a male 2 pin plug and a female 2 pin socket. They are readily available in all electric stores. Now strip the wire and connect it to both the plug and the socket. That’s it. Your DIY item is ready to be used.

Plug the attachment into the power strip and gently place the socket onto the pins of the power brick. Switch your system on to check if all connections are proper.

Some of the advantages of using this trick are:

• Your power brick is not strained from hanging on its own weight. It can now neatly rest on its back with maximum stability.
• Your power strip is not overcrowded.
• The risk of loose connections and loosing power to your appliances is eliminated.
• There are no short circuit or overheating hazards due to crowding effect.
• Eliminates the need to buy one more power strip!

Try it and let us know if you found this tip useful.

Original comment posted by: Williamspk

http://htoh.wordpress.com/2007/08/27/electrical-sockets/#comment-31

“Universal adaptor is fine for imported goods to be plugged into Indian homes, but what happens when I take my Indian bought laptop to the UK or US (its plug is meant for Indian sockets only). Can the same adaptor be used there as well?

And I believe the sockets are different in Europe and US. Anyone has any idea on all the variations out there? Will be nice to have a list and to take care of all eventualities.

I once made a trip outside India without planning this out. It was a near disaster with the laptop power running out on me very quickly. Don’t want to go through that again.”

There is something called Universal Travel Adaptor which you could purchase in airports or major electrical stores.

What it has is, a variety of plug combinations to suit different countries on the rear and a universal socket arrangement in the front.

I have one with me and it is designed to work in pretty much all countries.

The thing to be noted here is that this will not convert voltages. So ensure that your laptop power brick/mp3 player charger/mobile charger all can work with voltages ranging from 110V to 230V.

A picture is shown below for your reference.

Image Courtesy : http://www.outdooraccessories.co.uk